The only problem I have with the original circumstance is any negative effects the caged animals have vs a wild animal (if there are any) on the person eating it's health.
But sure why not make the chickens less scared? It can't hurt

I buy organic eggs and chicken not because i feel the animal is in fear. I buy that shit because i think they have miserable lives. No chicken should live without a beak. My turkey was pasture raised and cost $5.50 per pound opposed to like $1.80 for an industrial bird. I dont think either lives in fear but one got to roam around a field and do turkey shit while the other was crammed in a pen with a thousand other birds.

not really related, but I figured someone would enjoy this. During the 70's this dude called Jim Nollman went to a turkey farm with a tape recorder and recorded this. Him singing, and turkeys gobbling along.

I don't think that the lack of fear makes a difference in terms of morality. Just because something/someone doesn't understand what is happening doesn't mean that it is any more ethical. That could be applied to any situations with humans as well.

I remember hearing about a book which explains how there are absolutely no benefits to eating meat, be it social, environmental, or economical. It is just a huge waste of resources. I forgot what it is though... anybody know? I am personally not a vegetarian, nor do i plan to be, but it seems interesting.

that book is wrong. there are certain amino acids essential to proper development in humans that you can only get from eating meat. there's a reason humans evolved as an omnivorous species.

but the meat aspect isn't what I'm talking about. the raising of the meat (that sounds like a bad porn title). since factory farms are so much more space and resource efficient, if we could get around the moral opposition, why not just grow everything in massive massive factory farms?

K, I may have twisted that in a bit of a weird way. It isn't some random person's opinion though. And the whole book does relate to your original question. I know that one reason to not do that, ignoring the moral implications, is because of the tremendous environmental impacts. These farms have a much larger impact than people are usually aware of.

Then you have to ask, how much energy and food is wasted in factory farms? Maybe if they were operating at optimal efficiency levels it would be a bigger trade off. I don't have any stats, but i am pretty sure there is a lot of waste in factory farms.

still deprives them of their rights to a free life, medical care, and not to be harmed, plus genetically modifying them to begin with is ethically wrong, some would argue. also has the possibility of long-term health effects, which is a big controversy in the animal rights world currently.

Any scientist who tells you they can simply isolate a gene that determines _____ and shit it off is absolutely bullshitting. Genetics is way more complicated than that and has a lot to do with how environmental factors activate and effect genes and their functions.

The fact that we have been "mass producing" animals for years is wrong. It's not just the fear and pain these animals experience, its the fact that these animals are put in a place where diseases run rampid, where they have to be pumped full of antibiotics to keep them from dying of the thousands of diseases that are constantly spreading throughout these creatures. It's the fact that we are feeding these animals foods their bodies aren't designed to consume, therefor causing adverse effects that make eating the meat of these animals bad for us. I honestly believe that factory farms are wrong in every sense. They promote bad business, threatening farmers and producing a product so borderline disgusting that we as consumers should be ashamed to be purchasing it. I have done so much research on the topic that the things I have found would disturb most if not everyone on this site that has a moral sense of right and wrong and cares what they are putting into their bodies. The whole "treating the animals humanely/getting rid you their fear" is only the tip of the iceberg man. Factory farms should be abolished for good.

methodsam.tumblr.com

"Fuck those "LMS if you remember this" "LMS if you brush your teeth" "LMS if you want to fingerblast a hippopotamus into submission" FUCK ALL THOSE FUCKING FUCKERS. WE ALL REMEMBER WHAT A FUCKING RING POP IS."-Forcillo

Read Robert Sapolsky's Monkeyluv and there is an article he wrote about this. Also I'm sure you can just look up genetic determinance and find lots of articles about this. It's not that genes don't influence us but that they are complex networks activated in multifarious ways by our environments.

Right. Like why shouldnt all turkeys get to gobble it up in a field while theyre alive? Shit, id trade with em. My life is stressful as fuck and those turkeys just trot around with out a care in the world.

turkeys are scared of predators. turkeys that are raised on turkey farms have no predators. they just get excited as shit to eat some food. they have no idea that they should be roaming around in the woods. they aren't sad.

Morally? I would say no. You are violating the categorical imperative. Morally you can not use the chicken's biological capabilities as a means to an end. Eating a chicken that has that gene removed is morally worse than eating a chicken that doesn't have the gene removed because of this. It is more damaging to the dignity of the chicken. If the objective goal or motives for removing this gene is purely to make the chicken happier, then absolutely yes. But more often than not we do this to sell more chickens and ease our own guild, THUS we are using the chickens as a means to an end.

It's all about dat local shit man. We get our own eggs from our chickens. Buy meat from a cow that lived about 10 minutes away and had a big as pasture to roam. Get organic chicken and pork from the store. It may be more expensive, but it tastes damn good and you are giving your money to good people, not fucking tyson

SKI THE EAST

"Last night is dreamed that i beat up a girl for badmouthing my Jiberish. Bitch deserved it"-
Relish_man

we're the goddamn dominant species on this planet. we fucked everyone up on the way here so we can eat whatever we want, however we want, from wherever we want it. i don't think a bear would give a shit if we're comfy and cozy before it ate us.

A bear would have no essential reason to eat us as bears do not naturally predate humans. Bears may maul/kill people from time to time because it feels like its cubs are threatened but not because it wants our meat.

yes but a chicken who lives in a cage its entire life without room to move doesnt have any notion that anything outside exists, doesnt know it has a mother, doesnt know what its like to run around, doesnt know what its like to feel healthy, or eat food that doesnt have shit in it. for those birds, thats all there is to their life, so there is nothing to be unhappy about. we look at it objectively because we value our free lifestyle and would feel terrible if we had to live in those conditions. but a chicken has no idea. all of its emotion range takes place in that setting, without any influence from the outside. so what reason is there to expect that the chicken would feel bad about its life if it has no notion that there could be anything better?

Humans have been genetically modifying species long before we had any real understanding of genes. It may be a valid question still, but there are already hordes of animals walking the earth that wouldn't survive a week without human intervention.

There are tons of things that chicken do that exhibit the idea that they resist being in cages because of their natural inclinations. Do you know the reason they don't have beaks? Because they would peck each other to death if they did.